View allAll Photos Tagged quirky
No petrol here, but a couple of quirky bits outside in the way of an RAC members telephone box and a Jet branded Gilbarco Highline pump.
In the 2009 street view image the site appeared to be vacant, but appeared to be trading in 2011.
There was also a Gilbarco Trimline pump in the corner which was still there in 2018, this has now long gone
2009 Google street view
www.google.com/maps/place/Pauls+Autos+and+Recovery+The+Ol...
this is simultaneously my entry in the QUIRKY GOODNESS diptych contest AND the end of the roll mistake contest. Note it is an organic diptych as it is the last 2 frames of a roll of film shot on a half frame camera. So I guess they are about a quarter frame each. Im not sure why that matters.I just thought it was neat. It is the clean sexy elegance of ladies high heel shoes VS the dirty mess of a boys sneaker mid stage dive. Obviously, I missed the dead line for both contests so I dont really expect to win anything. But I get really depressed this time and could use a pick up.
Lots to look at while waiting for your food in this small creperie in St. Bertrand-de-Comminges. And the crepes are good, too.
Mannekin model heads stuck onto the top of this vehicle. Love that idea. Kaikoura, New Zealand.
I can't get out much to take photos at the moment as my husband is sick but have found some I really like in the depths of my computer that I took some time ago
A neat little place unknown to most who pass thought Stirling, Alberta. The Lost Frontier Mini Railroad and Stirling Haunted Mansion is a fantastic little quirky place to visit.
The old Ogden Home which my grandparents once owned in the 1970s. They had to sell because my grandpa got a job teaching at the Wrentham school and had to relocate to Wrentham. (DAMN!!!) lol
Note the 'cranberry red corbels' were painted by my grandma when they first got the place haven't received paint since.
The Ogden home was once abandoned for a short time and said to be haunted according to village records. It also held the community school in the 1930s when the second story of the Galt School house caught fire. School was held here until the school was renovated. The home was also a dance hall for a short time.
The Ogden home has gone through a few owners over the years. The current owners hold a Hunted mansion around Halloween and go well over the top decorating every year. At Christmas time they hold the Santa Clause mansion in conjunction with the village Christmas light tour.
Located at
Their website ----> lostfrontierminirailroad.webs.com/ridetherails.htm
The Millennium Pilgrim by Rory Young.
Southwell Minster is the Cathedral of Nottinghamshire. For nearly one thousand years Southwell Minster has been a place of pilgrimage. Its rural location and stunning, but quirky, architecture have made it a "must see" destination throughout the centuries. John Betjeman put his finger on it when he noted that "everywhere around is an atmosphere of peace and in the Minster there's one of prayer."
A large Roman villa originally stood on the Minster site. In 956, the land was given by the King of Wessex to the Archbishop of York and a church was built. In 1108 the then Archbishop put in process the rebuilding of this Anglo-Saxon church and Southwell Minster, as we know it today, was begun. The twin "pepperpot" towers on the west front were completed by 1170, while the celebrated Chapter House - with its wonderful carved stone leaves - was constructed circa 1300. During the first half of the 15th century the original windows of the west front of the cathedral were replaced by a huge Perpendicular window in the latest style.
The Minster survived the Reformation relatively unscathed but, during the Civil War, it was damaged when used as stabling by Roundhead forces (King Charles 1 spent his final night of freedom in Southwell). In 1711 - on 5th November, appropriately enough - much more serious damage occurred when a fire ripped off the roof, destroying most of the bells and the organ. Repairs were limited, with an unsatisfactory, almost flat, roof being put on. In 1815, the spires on the pepperpot towers had become unsafe and were removed, rather than replaced.
It wasn't until 1851 that the serious repairs needed were finally put in hand and the building was sympathetically worked on over the next forty years. In 1884, Southwell Minster became the Cathedral church and should, today, be correctly styled "Southwell Cathedral" - but the traditional name has stuck.
In the 21st century visitors continue to come to worship, to pray and to admire Southwell Minster and enjoy one of England's finest medieval churches, which is now widely acknowledged to be Nottinghamshire's most loved building.
Southwell Minster and Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin.
The Minster is built on, or immediately adjacent to, the site of a Roman building complex. The tympanum in the north transept is of Saxon-Norman date and may have come from the pre-Conquest church on this site, as have four baluster shafts now preserved in the nearby Minster Centre. Work began on the Norman nave in 1108, using stone from Mansfield quarries.
The church is a cruciform structure with nave, transepts, screen, choir, sanctuary, three side chapels, chapter house, north porch, twin west towers and a central tower containing 13 bells. The nave has seven bays with the pattern of columns and arches repeated at the triforium and again at the clerestory.
Important historiated capitals of the early 12th century, depicting the Last Supper and other key scenes, decorate the east crossing piers. The composition of the 12th century transepts is strong and simple with blank arcading the whole height of the ground floor. The north porch is Norman, zigzag-decorated and tunnel vaulted (very rare in England); it has a room with a fireplace above.
In 1234 The Archbishop of York decided to pull down the Norman east end and replace it with a larger and longer Early English choir. The pattern is identical to that at Beverley and Salisbury. In c1288 work began on the Chapter House. The entrance is via a marvellous pointed arch decorated with superlative carved leaves. Inside the octagonal structure, unsupported by a central column, contains no Christian symbolism but delightful carvings of leaves, animals, birds and Green Men. The form of the Chapter House bears similarities with those at Wells and Elgin cathedrals. The stone screen was added in c1320-40, replacing one of c1250 and restored in 1820 by the Bernasconi brothers. There are masses of small heads full of caricature, jokes, lust and laughter. The sedilia must be by the same masons, who might have been directed by the Master Mason Ivo de Raghton.
The brass lectern dates from 1503 and the font from 1661. The pulpit is by G F Bodley.
The timber barrel-vaulted roof of the nave and the pinnacles of the west towers were designed by Ewan Christian in 1879-81 and replicate those destroyed by fire in 1711.
There is good Victorian glass by O’Connor and Kempe. The glass in the great west window was designed by Patrick Reyntiens and installed in 1996.
There is good wood carving ranging from medieval misericords to Thompson’s mice.
A fine alabaster memorial to the Archbishop of York, Edwyn Sandys, is matched by a bronze bust of Sir Edwyn Hoskins, 2nd Bishop of Southwell, and a large bronze figure of George Ridding, the first Bishop.
The Minster became the cathedral for the new Diocese of Southwell in 1884.
Undeniably one of the most intriguing cars ever made, the 1970-75 Citroen SM defined quirky. Featuring Citroens trademark hydropneumatic suspension that raised and lowered the car would be reason enough. Coupled to extremely aerodynamic styling on the 5.0 metre long car, this performance flagship was capable of 140 mph (235 km/h). In part this can also be attributed to the engine. At the time the Italian sportcar marque Maserati was owned by the French mass-manufacturer. The sportscar makers engine was enployed as a 2.7 (later 3.0 litre) vee-six developing approximatedly 200 hp (150 kW), with all the crackle and pop the era's vehicle legislation allowed.
For such an exceptionally quirky car, it is somewhat strange that it shoul be awared car-of-the-year by a US motoring journal. Alas the US market which could have supported the vehicle though the fuel crisis modified vehicle bumper rules which all but elliminated all height varying suspension vehicles, including the SM. After a restricted build volume of 5 years and approximately 14,000 cars, it was no more.
The story.....
I saw her car lights illuminate. "Yellow?", I thought. The car sounded sweet. Light, fruity. The shape looked relatively conventional though. She light mover over to the car, opened the car, climbed aboard and arced around to where I was standing.
The form was long, slipery and clean. My additional clue came as she first moved off though. The car sighed lightly, and the rear lifted from the ground. "A Citroen." I thought, perhaps expecting a CX or DS.
Yes, and no. It was one of the rare and beautiful SMs, green in colour.
Again I thought to myself: "What else could she drive - the most intriguing and beguiling woman I had ever met."
To many strange thought in my head.
"I'll never... forget you." She said. A hint of regret or remorse in her voice.
It was late and my head was not clear enough to discerne.
"Yes." I said. "Likewise." Was the same regret in my own voice?
She smiled, powered her window back up and moved out onto the road.
The fruity exhaust again rasped in enjoyment and the car glided off into the fog. A phantom in the mist.
The model.
This miniland scale (1:21) Citroen SM features an front-mid-engined vee-engine, longitudinally mounted, driving the front wheels.
The front wheels are independently suspended with transverse arms and torsion bars (the real car featured oleopneumatics).
The rear suspension, which is height variable (four positions) features longitudinal trailing arms and torsion bars. I finally have found a use for the figure-8 rubber bush which acts as a damper and retains the suspension position under extension. As can be seen in one of the images, the suspension allows a full three plate diagonal articulation.
The bodywork features two doors, opening panoramic window rear liftgate and hood (bonnet).
There are groovy brown bolstered seats in the interior.
The fully glazed front panel features lego LED light units with yellow lens covers.
Celebrating LUGNuts 50th - thanks Lino, Nathan and the moderators for all your effort, encouragement, criticism and awesome models.
Sketches and finals for some editorial spot illustrations about the quirks of Nobel prize winners...
You have to look carefully, but be assured, this is part of a belt holding up the guy's pants and isn't something scary poking out his pants.
This October was a busy and tragic time for cobras. In Pattaya, Thailand, a whacky gent made a successful bid to kiss 11 cobras consecutively. Mad. His lips were wrapped around more venomous snakes than any person in history. What a way to get into the Guinness Book of Records. Madder still, he is the most prolific serpent-kissing human who ever lived to tell the tale, and then went back to work - as a snake charmer.
More observations on a daily basis from The Pisstakers
Undeniably one of the most intriguing cars ever made, the 1970-75 Citroen SM defined quirky. Featuring Citroens trademark hydropneumatic suspension that raised and lowered the car would be reason enough. Coupled to extremely aerodynamic styling on the 5.0 metre long car, this performance flagship was capable of 140 mph (235 km/h). In part this can also be attributed to the engine. At the time the Italian sportcar marque Maserati was owned by the French mass-manufacturer. The sportscar makers engine was enployed as a 2.7 (later 3.0 litre) vee-six developing approximatedly 200 hp (150 kW), with all the crackle and pop the era's vehicle legislation allowed.
For such an exceptionally quirky car, it is somewhat strange that it shoul be awared car-of-the-year by a US motoring journal. Alas the US market which could have supported the vehicle though the fuel crisis modified vehicle bumper rules which all but elliminated all height varying suspension vehicles, including the SM. After a restricted build volume of 5 years and approximately 14,000 cars, it was no more.
The story.....
I saw her car lights illuminate. "Yellow?", I thought. The car sounded sweet. Light, fruity. The shape looked relatively conventional though. She light mover over to the car, opened the car, climbed aboard and arced around to where I was standing.
The form was long, slipery and clean. My additional clue came as she first moved off though. The car sighed lightly, and the rear lifted from the ground. "A Citroen." I thought, perhaps expecting a CX or DS.
Yes, and no. It was one of the rare and beautiful SMs, green in colour.
Again I thought to myself: "What else could she drive - the most intriguing and beguiling woman I had ever met."
To many strange thought in my head.
"I'll never... forget you." She said. A hint of regret or remorse in her voice.
It was late and my head was not clear enough to discerne.
"Yes." I said. "Likewise." Was the same regret in my own voice?
She smiled, powered her window back up and moved out onto the road.
The fruity exhaust again rasped in enjoyment and the car glided off into the fog. A phantom in the mist.
The model.
This miniland scale (1:21) Citroen SM features an front-mid-engined vee-engine, longitudinally mounted, driving the front wheels.
The front wheels are independently suspended with transverse arms and torsion bars (the real car featured oleopneumatics).
The rear suspension, which is height variable (four positions) features longitudinal trailing arms and torsion bars. I finally have found a use for the figure-8 rubber bush which acts as a damper and retains the suspension position under extension. As can be seen in one of the images, the suspension allows a full three plate diagonal articulation.
The bodywork features two doors, opening panoramic window rear liftgate and hood (bonnet).
There are groovy brown bolstered seats in the interior.
The fully glazed front panel features lego LED light units with yellow lens covers.
Celebrating LUGNuts 50th - thanks Lino, Nathan and the moderators for all your effort, encouragement, criticism and awesome models.
2009. These little guys feature smalti, millifiori and glass beads. Sizes range from 2.5cm to 4 cms approx.
St Mary, Diss, Norfolk
If I was asked which town out of all of those I have visited is most typical of Norfolk, then I would certainly say Diss. It is ancient, quirky, predominantly working class. Its people are friendly yet reticent, politically conservative, socially liberal, welcoming but uncompromising. Its architecture is utilitarian, with glimpses of sudden loveliness that make you gasp.
Betjeman loved Diss above all East Anglian towns, and often said he was more proud of being president of the Diss Society than of being Poet Laureate. His friend Mary Wilson, a minor poet and wife of the Prime Minister of the day, had been brought up in Diss; he wrote to her: Dear Mary, yes, it will be bliss, to go with you by train to Diss...
In the 1970s, there was a local lobby for Diss to be the centre of regional government in the east of England, sitting as it does exactly halfway between Norwich and Ipswich. Whitehall smiled and nodded, and then sensibly opted for Cambridge, reasonably considering that one shouldn't allow such things as regional government to get too far out of ones grasp.
Diss became a backwater in the 17th and 18th centuries, and no major fire led to its rebuilding like Bungay, Beccles and other places in the Waveney valley. Because of this, Diss is second only to Sudbury in having more surviving medieval houses than any other town in East Anglia of its size. The other feel of the place is 19th century, because Diss was a railway town, and still is. Tudor and Victorian architecture is a happy combination, and Diss retains narrow streets and cobbled yards that have been bulldozed elsewhere.
More recently, European money has funded a major refurbishing of the Mere area (did I mention that Diss is the only market town in England built around a large lake?) and the town is also taking part in CittaSlow, a European-led project for small towns which aims to keep fast cars and fast food out, making the streets safe for pedestrians, pavement cafes and good food. And right in the heart of the town, hemmed in by narrow streets and leaning 16th century buildings, is the great church of St Mary.
The massive rebuilt Victorian chancel detracts from the nave, but this is also huge, and largely the product of the late 15th century. The attention to detail on the buttresses is remarkable. Every one has a pedestal in the form of an animal that once supported an image of a Saint. It must have been quite a sight. The 14th century tower has a processional archway through the base, as at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, and like that church this one also has a wooden fleche turret surmounting the tower, dating from 1906.
This, then, is a grand, urban church, central and essential to the townscape. Its churchyard is crossed by pathways that lead between the market square and the houses beyond the church; there is constant pedestrian traffic. Like all great urban churches St Mary is open all day, everyday, and is well-used. Not once have I ever been alone inside.
Being a grand, urban church, I am afraid that St Mary is almost entirely Victorianised. I do not know who the architect was, but I thought I detected the hand of Richard Phipson, responsible for the refurbishment of St Peter Mancroft and the complete rebuilding of St Mary le Tower in Ipswich. He would have been diocesan architect at the time, so whatever plans were made here would have passed through his hands in any case. There are a few medieval survivals - but very few. They are exquisite little panels of 15th and 16th century glass, handily set in the west window of the south aisle so you can get them out the way before you enter into the Victorianism of it all. A pretty girl wears a garland of flowers. A bearded man sits in a chair. A crowned woman in a kennel headdress gazes up piously. A Madonna and child, so faded as to be transparent, to be barely there. They are the ghosts of medieval Diss.
There are two piscinas in the south aisle, one of them 13th century, about four metres short of the east end, and a 15th century one further east. The first piscina obviously marks the end of the original aisle before the 15th century extension.
Everything else is post-Reformation. This is essentially an Anglican church. There is a remarkable decalogue board on the west wall which I take to be 18th century, but the overwhelming impression here is of the 1860s and 1870s, which brought the grand sanctuary and east window, the furnishings and, most of all, the glass. Every window in the nave is filled with the work of Ward & Hughes at their most imposing. Pevsner thought it was terrible, but actually there are a few details that are worth selecting, for taken in isolation they look like illustrations in a Victorian children's book, and are quite charming.
The glass in the chancel is quite something else. It is by Francis Oliphant, and Pevsner considered it an important work, the scenes of the nativity and the entombment in particular. There are a couple of other very interesting 19th century windows in the chancel and south aisle chapel, but unfortunately some of the best, including another Oliphant, were removed in 1980 in an attempt to make the chancel lighter.
A couple of curiosities. There are a number of late 19th and early 20th century brasses around the walls, as if this was a significant local industry in those days. The Camden Society at Cambridge had assumed that there would be a memorial brass revival on the scale of the stained glass revival. This of course did not happen, but two of the best are here, one signed by Weyer & Co of Norwich.
There is a large early 18th century tombchest in the north aisle to one Richard Burton. The lengthy inscription is worth a read. Basically, it says that he left a hundred pounds, and the interest of this was to go to the parish for the work of maintaining his tomb. Any money left over was to be given to the poor of Diss. However, if his executors felt that the tomb was not being maintained, then the job and the money were to default to the parish and poor of neighbouring Roydon instead. Hedging his bets still further, Burton's inscription then goes on to say that if Roydon isn't up to the job, then the benefit will fall to Bressingham, the next parish out.
To finish, it is worth saying that Diss is as proud as any small town is of its famous son and daughters. An expansion in housing around the town in the last fifteen years has left plenty of scope for naming new roads. The aforementioned Betjeman, Wilson, Manning and Burton have all been immortalised. Other commemorated Diss people include another Poet Laureate, John Skelton, probably the most idiosyncratic voice of 16th century poetry. He was renowned for his compassion, and his enthusiasm for inventing words; Keats and Auden both claimed debts. He was Catholic parish priest here for thirty years in pre-Reformation days. He once stood in the pulpit and held up what the church guide charmingly calls a 'love-child', claiming it as his own, and defying the congregation to find fault with it, its mother or with him.
John Wilbye, the Elizabethan composer of madrigals, came from Diss. Thomas Paine is more usually associated with Thetford where he was born, but he lived in Diss for twenty years, and perhaps learned his radical politics here, for Diss in the 18th century was a hotbed of non-conformism. A mark of how civilised this town is can be seen even out in the anonymous roads of the new estates, where many of the street signs include a brief explanation of the person or event the road is named after. Living in Diss must be an education in itself.
or more...
Sculpture depicting a textile mill worker, re-imagined for the 2020 pandemic.
Part of the Whittling Wall sculpture project, completed in 2017: www.flickr.com/photos/36684008@N00/albums/72157689309033834
149/366
For the treasure hunt "Quirky" in the 366/2020 - 2020 Vision group.
Daily Dog Challenge "#111. Local Interest - Take a picture of your dog at a point of local interest near you. Note that local can be some place that you visit near you, and that it doesn't have to be a huge monument. It can be something quirky or fun that's unique to your area."
No mountains, no oceans, a few arroyos (fancy word for "gulch") but no rivers, no forests, no monuments, no historic buildings that have any visual interest… Yup, I living in a rather uninteresting corner of the world.
112 Pictures in 2012 - "#49 - Statue or Sculpture"
BUT we do have a large pair of fat frog sculptures that delight the local children, and I thought might fall under the category of "quirky".
Scavenge Challenge February 2012 - "2. Easy one - just find something starting with "Cr..." (yeah, like "Crow!")"
This is the frog princess, wearing a CRown, while Henry does his best frog imitation.
50/366 - Feb. 19, 2012
Stop on by Zachary and Henry's blog: bztraining.blogspot.com